The ceremony was small; just 60 Sacramento area high school students would receive diplomas in a special mid-August ceremony for those who completed graduation requirements -- either credits or passage of the high school exit exam -- in the summer of their senior year. Although most of their classmates had walked across the stage months before, neither the ceremony's size nor its untraditional timing dampened the enthusiasm of this crowd. These were the students who had struggled and persisted. With its special graduation ceremony, Sacramento City Unified School District was honoring its commitment to them: "Don't give up on your studies, and we won't give up on you."

Such a commitment -- to provide students with whatever it takes to ensure they attain essential skills in English and math that they'll need to survive in a competitive world -- is at the core of the state's efforts to require passage of an exam as a condition of graduation. Prior to the exam requirement, far too many students were handed diplomas whether or not they had the skills those diplomas should signify. The exam as a graduation requirement has not only ended that practice, it has led to higher standards, more rigorous courses and better preparation for California's high school students.

As the author of the legislation that created the exam, I strongly believe that students allowed to graduate without basic skills in English and math are the ones cheated of true educational opportunity. The purpose of our system of public schools is not to hand out diplomas after 13 years of seat time, but to ensure that students learn to read, write, communicate, solve problems and function as productive citizens. A state Court of Appeal recently agreed, saying, "The purpose of education is not to endow students with diplomas, but to equip them with the substantive knowledge and skills they need to succeed in life. A high school diploma is not an education, any more than a birth certificate is a baby. Its purpose is to symbolize the holder's acquisition of a certain level of knowledge and skills." The court's decision validates the state's efforts over the last decade to raise standards and expectations and enhance educational opportunities for all students in California schools. Are we there yet? Does every student in every California classroom have the same high quality of teacher, classroom, instructional materials or support? Unfortunately, the answer remains no.

But what should we do to respond to this discrepancy? Unlike a suggestion made in this paper's editorial pages, the answer must not be to give kids a meaningless diploma, but rather to give them additional education in order to ensure that they have the skills necessary to compete in today's global economy. I have consistently stated that failure to pass the high school exit exam is not an end, it merely means a student's education is not complete. Those of us in the education community have an obligation to provide all students with those skills.

Now some will say that this is unrealistic and that kids simply won't show up if they don't get a diploma after their senior year. I say that argument sells our kids short. I have consistently found that when we expect more of our students, they rise to the challenge. I also ask that we take seriously the ruling of the appellate court, which clearly said that giving a student a diploma without the skills to back it up does that student more harm than good as he or she enters a knowledge-based economy, where basic skills are a minimum requirement to survive, let alone thrive.

The good news is that we are clearly moving in the right direction, and since the adoption of higher standards and school accountability, we have seen tremendous increases in the number of students proficient in reading, math and other core subjects. For example, from 2001 to 2005 the number of students reaching the high bar of proficiency or above in English Language Arts increased by more than 627,000 and in mathematics the number exceeded 650,000. We are still not where we need to be, but the exit exam has been one of the great equalizers in California public education, identifying those students most in need of assistance and getting them the help they need. It does this by identifying students at risk of falling behind and then providing targeted remedial programs and resources to learn the material. Programs that didn't exist prior to the exam, are now funded with more than $275 million a year to focus assistance on middle- and high-school students, as well as an additional $178 million for remediation services in grades seven through 12 and nearly $70 million specifically to assist those students in the class of 2007 still struggling to pass the exam.

Going into their senior year, a little more than 10 percent of that class still needs to pass one or both sections of the exam. I believe this focus on struggling students and a strong belief in the necessity for basic skills, explains the fascinating results of a new poll on education conducted by New America Media. The key findings of the survey show that most African-American, Asian-American and Latino parents support the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) and believe the main function of the public education system should be to prepare their children for college. In the end, after eight years of preparation and numerous legal challenges, the California High School Exit Exam has survived and is doing exactly what it was intended to do. Regular reporting of exam results has put a spotlight -- sometimes harsh -- on the true achievement of high school students. It has prodded teachers, school administrators and policymakers to examine the data and then target resources to where they are needed. Students who, in previous years, might have been given meaningless diplomas or, more likely, fallen too far behind to persist to graduation, are now getting the individualized attention needed to help them to learn and achieve. That is the commitment we need to make to our students. The exit exam is helping us to keep it.